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The resignation of Michael Hervey as Chief Operations Officer of the much-maligned Long Island Power Authority is a nice start at cleaning up a state agency with a history of questionable dealings, among them being polling payments that were linked to efforts to boost New York State Republican politicians like Rick Lazio. But it’s only a start.
Here’s the problem: LIPA has a long history as a GOP ‘turkey farm’ — that is, a place (either a government agency or a private company) used as a place to provide salaries to the friends and kin of Republicans and their patrons. (This has the added advantage, from the anti-government Republican point of view, of providing “proof” of the inherent inefficiency of government programs, as well as a pretext to privatize them, when these programs run into problems as a result of being run by otherwise-unemployable political hacks.) Mayor Bloomberg’s girlfriend, Diana Taylor, was once LIPA’s chief financial officer. A recent New York Times story gives a hint at just how deep the rot runs:
Lynda Nicolino, the former counsel to the Suffolk County Republican Party, earns $260,000 a year as the authority’s general counsel. Barbara Ann Dillon, a $125,000 compliance officer, is the daughter of Denis Dillon, the former Nassau County district attorney. Andrew McCabe, an assistant general counsel paid $117,000 a year, is the son of a former top judge in Nassau County.
Other top executives include former aides to the state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, the former Suffolk County executive, Steve Levy, and the former head of the Suffolk Republican Party.
The executives did not respond to requests for comment.
DiNapoli is the only person on that list who isn’t a Republican, and one gets the feeling he was included largely in an effort to stave off angry phone calls from conservative readers. The reality, as various New Yorkers of my acquaintance have stated, is that LIPA is a GOP cookie jar which they want to keep as a cookie jar — Democratic governors who try to appoint non-Republicans to key jobs such as COO run into unbelievably intense opposition from the state GOP.
Speaking of the state GOP, guess who they want to replace Hervey as COO? Patrick Foye, long prominent in local GOP circles and another political hire at LIPA. Anybody think that his elevation to COO will be anything more than yet another fox installed as the head of the LIPA henhouse? I sure don’t.
8 Comments
* Attempts to put on his best George W. Bush accent *
LIPA, you’re doin’ a heckuva job!
Eggzacktly.
Ah, another story on the out-of-power Republicans, courtesy of the Veal Pen.
LIPA outsources its operations to a private company, is running mainframe COBOL technology, depending on fax and marking maps with highlighters during an emergency, and has aging and poorly maintained infrastructure. I don’t doubt that Republican cronyism is operating here, but this seems like a typical 1%/99% problem of privatization, failure to maintain and develop the commons, etc., that needs broader solutions than increased Democratic oversight. My hope is that the people of LI will see a common interest across party lines in determining what needs to be done.
COBOL! WTF! might as well just pack candles and matches to light the abacus.
PW, thanks for a new phrase: Turkey Farm.
I can use it to describe our UC Regents. They like to vote themselves raises after doing the hard work of jacking up tuition. /threadjack.
We just might see LIPA go the way of the Dodo… Cuomo seems pissed and he’s not the only one. It might just happen. LIPA sucks big time!
America gets a real dose of truth every time the power goes out…..